


The Dance Goes Lightly Through the Grove

by Zdenka



Category: Der Rattenfänger von Hameln | The Pied Piper of Hamelin (Fairy Tale)
Genre: Gen, Horror, Quadruple Drabble, Treat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-29
Updated: 2020-07-29
Packaged: 2021-03-06 06:41:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25598980
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zdenka/pseuds/Zdenka
Summary: The children enjoy dancing to the Piper's tune, at first. But then they can't stop.
Comments: 18
Kudos: 33
Collections: Multifandom Horror Exchange (2020)





	The Dance Goes Lightly Through the Grove

**Author's Note:**

  * For [RobberBaroness](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RobberBaroness/gifts).



The Piper plays. He is fine and jaunty in his clothing of red and green and green and red, his cap topped with a red feather. The children dance after him, and they laugh as they go. It seems a fine piece of mischief, to run off without their parents’ leave. The sun is warm overhead, and the birds are singing.

Hours later, the Piper’s tune has not flagged, and the children are still dancing. They would like perhaps to dance more slowly, to take a rest sometimes. But they find they cannot. The sun beats down on their heads, and they wipe the sweat from their foreheads as they jump here and there.

A younger child says uncertainly, “Master Piper, I’m hungry! Is there something to eat?” But there is not. “I’m thirsty! Can’t we stop and draw some water from the well?” But they cannot.

One boy snatches a handful of berries from a bush in passing, not caring how the twigs leave scratches on his skin. He gobbles them frantically, his lips smeared red. It is not enough, and his stomach still feels hollow. They dance and leap and whirl and cannot stop.

They are tired and footsore, their clothing tattered from dancing through bushes and briars. “Please, Master Piper, may we rest for a moment?” He only plays a quick trill on his pipe, the pitch rising higher and higher. Their bodies jerk as one, and they dance faster.

The sun sets, and the air grows chill; but their dancing keeps them warm. Onward they go through the night, under the stars. Aleide sobs quietly as she clings to her friend’s hand. Guda stumbled from weariness as they were crossing a stream, and when she got up again no breath came from her blue lips. But Aleide will not let go and they dance onward hand in hand, even if one hand is warm and one is cold.

Onward, onward.

The Piper does not hunger. The Piper does not thirst. The Piper is not troubled if the children stumble and fall, if they stagger and lurch strangely when they get up again, if they dance along with unblinking eyes. His pipe plays for the dead as well as for the living. And when he reaches the end of his road, he is followed by a line of small corpses, still dancing and spinning on lifeless feet.

**Author's Note:**

> The title is from the ballad "Elveskud."


End file.
